March arrivals wrap up a stellar summer

23 Apr 2015

March has been another month of impressive visitor numbers with total arrivals up 7.1 per cent for the year- bringing a fantastic summer season to a close, says Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler.

9.9%up for the year ending March 2015

The data, released today by Statistics New Zealand, confirms that much of this growth has been driven from holiday arrivals, up 9.9 per cent for the year ending March 2015.

Kevin says, "It has been a spectacular summer for the tourism industry and there is a feeling of great positivity out there which is encouraging to see.

"Events like the ICC Cricket World Cup which kicked off in February and Chinese New Year have further boosted arrivals for the last couple of months.

"As a result we have seen positive overall growth out of Australia up 4.3 per cent, the UK up 4.1 per cent and India up an incredible 27.5 per cent.

"Despite the increasingly unfavourable exchange rate, the ICC Cricket World Cup has driven a strong month of arrivals from Australia, up 14.0 per cent when compared to the same month last year.

"Heading into autumn our focus now moves to promoting our winter offering in Australia with the 'more magic in every day' campaign - encouraging Australians to cross the ditch for a winter ski holiday.

"We are seeing impressive growth from China, with holiday arrivals up over 23.8 per cent pushing total arrivals up by 23.3 per cent.

"What is most encouraging to see is continued signs that we are attracting more high quality visitors from this market with stays days up 32.7 per cent, and for the year ending December 2014, spend up 50.0 per cent."

Holiday results are strong out of the Asian markets of Singapore (up 11.2 per cent), Japan (up 16.9 per cent), Korea (up 17.2 per cent) for the year ending March 2015.

Year-on-year growth has been further supported by solid holiday arrivals from Western markets with holiday arrivals from the US, UK and Germany up 12.1 per cent, 7.8 per cent and 12.0 per cent respectively.

Tourism New Zealand's priority emerging markets are performing well year-on-year too with total arrivals from Brazil up 9.9 per cent and Indonesia up 10.9 per cent.